<?php
/**
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 * Copyright © 2018 Alex Yst <mailto:copyright@y.st>
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**/

$xhtml = array(
	'<{title}>' => 'The firewall works!',
	'takedown' => '2017-11-01',
	'<{body}>' => <<<END
<img src="/img/CC_BY-SA_4.0/y.st./weblog/2018/07/18.jpg" alt="Urban trees" class="framed-centred-image" width="649" height="480"/>
<section id="visit">
	<h2>Visit</h2>
	<p>
		It seems the tool my pibling lent my mother isn&apos;t useful for the task at hand.
		It seems to be some sort of oddly-shaped, plastic wrench.
		I&apos;m not sure exactly what my mother thought the problem was or how she described it to her sibling, but she thought there was something under the sink that needed to be loosened.
		I found no such bolt, screw, or anything else.
		The tubes would need to be disconnected, but you&apos;d use a regular wrench for that, and this wacky wrench was shaped such that it wouldn&apos;t help at all.
		The only thing I can see keeping the faucet she wants removed on is a stripped screw up above.
		The wacky wrench wont&apos; help with that.
		I tried suggesting a metal-cutting saw to cut a new, flat groove in the screw, so a large flathead screwdriver could remove it.
		She said instead she wants to try some special drill bit made for this kind of job, but the way she described it sounded like it could easily go wrong.
		It&apos;s probably easier to at least try though.
	</p>
	<p>
		She also gave me one of her old Wi-Fi routers.
		I was finally able to test my firewall settings today!
		The firewall settings seem fine.
		I guess I should get an Internet connection set up soon.
		I want to get my alchemy mod done first though, and I need to get a modem before an Internet connection will even function.
	</p>
</section>
<section id="drudgery">
	<h2>Drudgery</h2>
	<p>
		My discussion posts for the day:
	</p>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			Hilariously, my mother got angry with my eldest sibling once, telling them never to have children.
			The implication was that the children would be just like them, and we didn&apos;t need more of my sibling in this world.
			They&apos;re like me though, and don&apos;t want children, ostensibly for different reasons than me.
			I mean, I&apos;m the only person I know that doesn&apos;t want to create life because I know creating life means necessarily being the cause of that life&apos;s death.
			My sibling responded that they&apos;re already planning not to have children, and our mother acted like she&apos;s been kicked in the teeth!
			She said it, but she didn&apos;t mean it.
			And she took it personally that they wouldn&apos;t want to breed.
		</p>
		<p>
			I&apos;m not sure those delivering the death were the only people happy.
			We don&apos;t meet many characters, but it&apos;s implied that everyone is thriving and happy in this world.
			The father is a notable exception, but only because he&apos;s necessarily going to have to choose which two of his children will die.
			What parent would be happy with <strong>*any*</strong> of their children dying?
			The artist also seems disgruntled, but some people are just unhappy.
			It&apos;s who they are.
		</p>
		<p>
			No though, the artist won&apos;t be painting the dead woman.
			The artist, at the end of the story, called up the suicide hotline.
			He wont&apos; be doing any more painting ever again.
		</p>
		<p>
			We already live in a worlds where others decide our fate.
			There&apos;s no way to live in a shared world without others deciding things for you, often things that are directly bad for you.
			So do you think this world works out?
			If yes, then there&apos;s your answer: a world where others decide your fate can work.
			In not, it gets tricky.
			You&apos;d need someone benevolent and very wise calling the shots, and genuine benevolent people are difficult to come by, let alone ones that also have a lot of wisdom.
		</p>
	</blockquote>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			It looks like it&apos;s you that needs to pay more attention to detail, not me.
		</p>
		<p>
			In past units, it said two <strong>*posts*</strong>.
			It looks like that was partly corrected this week, but it still says there&apos;s a second post:
		</p>
		<blockquote>
			<p>
				Your SECOND topic posts in the Discussion Forum this week:
			</p>
		</blockquote>
		<p>
			The grammar is slightly broken, but it clearly says topic posts (as in posts (plural) regarding a topic or topics) and not post topics (as in topics (plural) addressed in a post or posts).
			It&apos;s still two posts, just like past units.
		</p>
	</blockquote>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			I certainly agree with you that there must be other worlds with life out there.
			I mean, what are the chances we&apos;re the only living planet?
			If life could form from the muck here, surely there must be <strong>*somewhere*</strong> else life can and did form.
			It might be a world similar to ours in make up, or very different.
			I just don&apos;t know.
			But like you said, the life forms there would be different than us.
			Evolution would have taken different twists and turns than it did here, not to mention a different starting pojnt.
		</p>
		<p>
			I think the story is trying to convey two messages.
			On the surface, the message is that the reason we haven&apos;t made contact is that other life forms are ignoring us.
			It&apos;s a simple explanation, and it works.
			Deeper though, I wouldn&apos;t be surprised if it was a commentary on human prejudice.
			We hate or otherwise look down on others for the stupidest reasons, such as heritage or appearance.
			Entire races of people, often times.
			We think the thoughts and feelings of people different than us to be inferior to our own, or outright invalid.
			Here, the extra terrestrials are doing just that to us, based solely on the material we&apos;re built from.
		</p>
		<p>
			I mean, not all humans are so horrible to one another, but many are.
		</p>
	</blockquote>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			Ha ha.
			Yeah, Plato wanted people to comply with the state&apos;s rules, all while the state was issuing overbearing laws that mostly revolved around micromanaging and taking away freedom and knowledge.
			I&apos;m not sure how he expected humans to thrive that way, or in what way it was supposed to be a utopia.
		</p>
		<p>
			I wouldn&apos;t say Plato&apos;s city was quite a monarchy, but close.
			A monarchy has but a single ruler.
			Plato&apos;s city was an aristocracy, where an upper ruling class managed everything.
			Not that that really makes any difference when you&apos;re living in such a city though ...
		</p>
		<p>
			You mention that Plato&apos;s city <strong>*could*</strong> be used to oppress people, but I&apos;d argue that by it&apos;s very nature it necessarily <strong>*does*</strong>.
			It&apos;s not a city that could lead to oppression, it&apos;s a city founded on the principle of oppression and weaves oppression into every breath the city takes.
		</p>
	</blockquote>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			I completely agree.
			Saint Thomas Aquinas put way too much trust in humanity; we&apos;ve proven time and time again that we don&apos;t deserve it.
			Often times people see goodness in people, even when it isn&apos;t there.
		</p>
	</blockquote>
</section>
<section id="recipe">
	<h2>
		I had more store-bought ranch than I thought left over after the vinegar experiment, it&apos;s just that the stuff is thick and hard to get out of the bottle.
		So after I concluded the vinegar experiment was a failure, I tried with lime juice, this time using the original bottle to house the experiment.
		I left it for days, with little change.
		It separated slightly, and left a residue on the inside of the bottle, but otherwise, remained intact.
		I&apos;ve been forced to conclude that for a non-separating ranch, I&apos;ll need something that isn&apos;t vinegar, such as lime juice.
		Lime juice itself is a mess though, with the residue it causes to form.
		Still, I&apos;d like to try one batch of my home-made recipe, using lime juice as a substitute for the vinegar.
		I don&apos;t think it&apos;s a viable replacement though, as it&apos;s not a preservative like the vinegar is.
		Consequently, it might be the same characteristic (probably a strong acidity) that both gives vinegar its preservative qualities and makes it separate the ranch.
		It may not be possible to get the results I seek.
	</h2>
</section>
END
);
